Senior Nabil Khan Wins Prestigious Fulbright Grant

Senior Nabil Khan Wins Prestigious Fulbright Grant

Nabil Khan of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, a senior at Swarthmore College, has been named a Fulbright Grantee for 2007. The son of Shafqat and Khalil Khan and brother of Mehreen and Hasan Khan, he is a 2003 graduate of the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and also attended the International School of Choueifat in Abu Dhabi. Khan is one of three Swarthmore seniors to have won the Fulbright Grant this year. Tracy Kwon of Bethesda, Md., and Veronica Chao Lim of Princeton Junction, N.J., have also received Fulbright Grants thus far.

Khan plans to use his Fulbright Grant to explore and elucidate contemporary understandings of mental "illness" in urban Morocco and of the cultural import of the psychiatric field in a place where it is governmentally sanctioned and is growing. "I am interested in understanding what mental health services and the worldviews they represent, so rooted in Western diagnostic and therapeutic traditions, mean to those from a country historically considered a frontier of the Islamic world," said Khan. "Given the country's eclectic background and demographic, I am interested in the political, religious and social dimensions of psychological understanding and how cultural currents inform daily mental healthcare practice."

Khan is a psychology major with minors in biology and English literature. He is a Thomas B. McCabe scholar, selected as an entering student based on leadership, ability, character, personality, and service to school and community, and has been active in Swarthmore for Immigrants' Rights, the Muslim Student group, Deshi (South Asian Students organization), and Forum for Free Speech and is co-editor of Remappings (the Asian/Asian-Diaspora literary publication). He was also a biology Writing Associate (peer tutor) and a member of the steering committee of the 2006 "Beyond the Box" conference on critical multiculturalism.

Administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards full research grants to graduating seniors and young alumni after an extensive application process. Recipients receive a stipend to cover housing and living expenses.